The present invention relates to medical needle units.
Medical needle units are widely known and used for injection and withdrawal of blood or other tissue fluids. After the withdrawal of blood or other tissue fluids, the needle of the needle unit is withdrawn from a muscle, vein, artery or another body area and a tip of the needle is exposed. The needle may be contaminated with microorganisms, and it is possible that a technician, nurse or physician can be accidentally punctured by the exposed needle tip. In the event of contamination of the needle with viruses, etc., it can lead to very serious or even grave consequences. It is to be understood that it is desirable to at least decrease the tendency of the operator to be accidentally struck by an exposed needle tip.
Several solutions have been proposed to avoid the accidental puncture. One of such solutions includes for example a cylindrical hood which is movably attached to the needle which moves first to an exposing position in which the tip of the needle is exposed before the injection and back to enclosing position in which the cylindrical hood encloses the tip of the needle after the injection. Another solution is a hood which moves along the syringe and is also displaced to cover the needle. It is believed that the existing solutions are quite complicated, not reliable, need additional procedures. It is therefore desirable to develop further protective elements for medical needle units which are simpler, less expensive, reliable and self-operating.